I offer the following in contention against RM's declaration in this string's post #2
Lincoln was a racist
In the seventh Lincoln-Douglas debate, conducted on Oct. 15, 1858, Justice Douglas said:
"Suppose the doctrine advocated by Mr. Lincoln and the abolitionists of this day had prevailed when the Constitution was made, what would have been the result? Imagine for a moment that Mr. Lincoln had been a member of the Convention that framed the Constitution of the United States, and that when its members were about to sign that wonderful document, he had arisen in that Convention as he did at Springfield this summer, and addressing himself to the President, had said, 'A house divided against itself cannot stand; (laughter) this government, divided into free and slave States, cannot endure, they must all be free or all be slave, they must all be one thing or all the other, otherwise, it is a violation of the law of God, and cannot continue to exist;' -suppose Mr. Lincoln had convinced that body of sages that that doctrine was sound, what would have been the result? Remember that the Union was then composed of thirteen States, twelve of which were slaveholding and one free."
RM's claim [he does not cite it for any academic support] may have derived from the commentary of an editorialist [and not an academically-trained historian] Lerone Bennett, writing “Was Abe Lincoln a White Supremacist?” in Ebony, 1968. This article by Bennett cites the Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, of which there were seven. I've cited from the seventh above. This citation does not agree with Bennett, or RM. In fact, I've re-read the whole of the debates [accessible from the citation above], having read them. in high school, and college. No statement by Lincoln in any of the debates supports Bennett's claims, and a simple read of the total debates will confirm it. So, read them. Lerone Bennett is an opinionated, historically dead, and bitter editor, a product of his time, and a seeker of anything but truth, a fumbling member of a jaded media. Let the scholarship prevail, along with the transcript of the Lincoln-Douglas debates to find the true opposer of abolition. Lincoln was only opposed to letting the decision of slavery to remain at state level, where Douglas argued it should be decided. Not to mention that even Douglas erred in his facts, declaring later in the 7th debate that, at the time of the Constitutional Convention [1788], of the 13 colonies, 12 were slave colonies-become States by ratification of the Constitution. Go look for the statement, if you care, and then for the real count of slave/free colonies. Yes, the majority were slave colonies, but not 92% [12 of 13] of them. As it happens, it was just 62% [8 of 13]. Hint, if you want to identify all of the slave states at the time of ratification, do remember to count New York. Douglas, in my opinion, shared my description of Bennett.
